Returning to the Marsh

On the evening of the 15th we took a drive down toward Paradise Plains and here we came across three of the Paradise Plain/Serena females. With them were three male lions, ones which many of the guides did not recognise. Two of the males could have easily been mistaken for the 'Notch boys', but they were not these guys. Whilst Paul and I were not 100% we were quietly confident that they were in fact three of the '4km' males, who had come from the Mara Triangle (there are 4 of them in total). Two appeared to be the same age, around 7 years, whilst one was a fraction younger and looked to be no older than around 6 years. That would be a job for when I returned home to indeed see if I could make an ID match to the males from the Mara Triangle.


The next morning we headed back to the Musiara Marsh, by now we expected that some more of the Marsh pride would have discovered the dead elephant and hoped to capture some of the action at first light.

En-route we came across a leopard, straddled in the fork of the tree and at the base of the tree a Hyena, who had been attracted y the kill that the Leopard had stashed in the tree two days before. As we approached from some distance it was clear that we would have only a few 'miliseconds' before the leopard would jump down and by the time we had found a suitable position it indeed jumped down and sprinted off into the thicket. Clearly this was a shy Leopard so we decided not to try and relocate. It's not always possible to 'get the shot' and this was just one of those occasions.

As we approached the same area as the morning prior we were astonished to see that the Elephants still remained with the carcass, that was something we certainly did not expect. This appeared to include the same Elephant who had stuck closely to the body the morning prior. Unlike yesterday, when they were frantic and stressed the scene was a little more calm and the vigil at the dead Elephant continued. Sure enough on the carcass fed some of the Marsh pride, we saw that Bibi and Charm were there, but no sign of the other adult females, White eye, Sienna and Joy. With the two adults were a total of 5 sub adult females and nearby, although not feeding were the two younger males. Although it was initially suspected that these were the young males from the pride it is now thought that they may have come from elsewhere.....I would not like to be in their shoes if the 'four musketeers' return!

The Elephants just stood next to the carcass as the lions fed, the lions growling and swatting their paws as they argued over the best spot at the dinner table. Nearby on the tracks around the Marsh more elephants stood, while some lay down. One particular elephant even started mating with another Elephant even started mating with another, quite bizarre to see whilst the Lions continued to feed just a few feet away.  It was just most bizarre to see that they continued to 'mourn' and only once or twice did they try and deter the lions off the Elephant, but not with the ferocity they had done the day before. It was if they accepted that they were just not going to stop to the lions feeding.

The Elephants moved off and so later did the sub adults and into the shade, as we left the two adult females remained at the carcass and the males continued to sit around 100 metres away.

We headed off leaving the scene and wanted to try and find the '4 Musketters', the males who in September had ousted Romeo and Clawed but who had still yet to consolidate the Marsh pride since the takeover.

Today was hot, a fierce heat that feels as if it is maybe building for some rain again, the only likley place that we would be finding the male lions by now was under a tree and seeking shade.

Sure enough in the distance I spotted a shape under an Acacia and after inspecting with the binoculars you could see it was a male Lion. We headed over as as we approached you could see he was a young male, aged just a little over 5 years I would suspect, Indeed it looked like Morani or Hunter from the Marsh pride. Nearby Paul then spotted more lions around 200 metres away and again lay flat out under a tree. As we approched it was obvious we had found the remaining 3 of the 4 Musketeers. Sikio, Scarface and either Morani or Hunter (I am not 100% which one at this stage) panted heavily in the heat that must have been topping 90 degrees by now. They looked well and appeared to have fed fairly recently. Scarface had sustained a bad eye injury at least 6 months ago, which had been treated by a wildlife vet at least 3 times. Now it seemed it was starting to heal, although his eye closing up, but the wound itself not looking as infected or open as before, but still a pinkish colour.

Across the plains, maybe around 500 metres away two females appeared out of the croton and walking slowly toward an Acacia tree in the distance, but not before they had cooled themselves in a mud puddle en route!. The males saw the females and they exhanged eye contact at a distance so clearly the group had already been aware of each others presence. We watched to see where they headed and then ahead saw that they were headed to the tree where it looked as if another lion was rested. We could not see if a Lion was there but a Topi acted in such a way that signalled a predator was nearby. Investigating further there was indeed one more female here and as we got a closer look at the other two females we saw it was 'the breakaway females' from the Marsh pride. There was no sign of the 4th female, but suspected she ma have been in the thicket still from where the other two had come from.

The lions were all hot and bothered and by this point so were we!, as it was positively baking today! So leaving them to it we headed back to camp, just time for me to catch up on this mornings sightings before we head back out laer for our last afternoon drive in the Mara. Sadly we have only one further night here in the Mara and I can tell you I am starting to feel so sad that very soon I have so once again say goodbye to this wonderful place until we can hopefully return in a few months, but this time returning with Andy and Our Land Rover. 

Possibly one of the '4km males' from the Mara Triangle

The Elephants continue their vigil at the Elephant Carcass.

The two new young males at the sighting

Bibi, Charm and the female sub adults feed on the Elephant 

One of the 'Four Musketeers'

Three of the Four Musketeers

'Scarface' and the injury to his eye that begins to heal

One of the four 'Breakaway females'